How to Cope with an Abusive Leader? Examinations of Subordinates’ Affective Reactions, CWB-O and Turnover Intentions

Abstract

When subordinates experience abusive supervision, they often respond with “fight” (e.g., organizationally-directed counterproductive work behavior: CWB-O) or “flight” reactions (e.g., turnover intentions). Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, we propose that negative (NA) and positive affect (PA) explain these distinct responses and that coworker emotional support differentially moderates the relationships of affective states with CWB-O and turnover intention. That is, we expect that emotional support exacerbates the mediating effect of NA, whereas it weakens the mediating effect of PA. We tested the hypothesized model in two time-lagged studies, one among subordinates ( N = 162), and the other among supervisor-subordinate dyads ( N = 255 dyads). Results confirmed that the relation between abusive supervision and CWB-O was mediated by NA, and that the relation between abusive supervision and turnover intentions was mediated by PA. Coworker emotional support strengthened the mediating effect of NA, but it did not attenuate the mediating effect of PA. These results only hold for CWB-O, not for supervisor-rated CWB-O. Explanations, implications as well as limitations and ideas for future research are discussed.

How perceived risk influences college students' preventive behavior: Novel data of COVID-19 campus lockdown from Wuhan, China

“…It reveals the differential influences of PA/NA on PB related to PR ( 21 ). That is, college students' PR might increase PB by reducing NA and increasing PA. NA strengthens counterproductive work behavior ( 87 ), like violating PB in the COVID-19 pandemic, and meanwhile negatively affects health behavior ( 88 ). Individuals with higher levels of PA are more likely to care for themselves ( 89 ) and show great potential in health behavior learning ( 90 ).…”

How Fear of External Threats Plays Roles: An Examination of Supervisors’ Trait Anger, Abusive Supervision, Subordinate Burnout and CCB

“…Furthermore, by proposing and examining the positive relationship of abusive supervision with subordinates’ CCB, the current study enriched people’s understanding of how subordinates react to abusive supervision. Previous literature has shown that abusive supervision is negatively related to organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB; [ 33 ]), but fewer studies have noted that abusive supervision also makes subordinates engage in organizational citizenship behaviors against their will [ 22 ]. Our study empirically supported this relationship and found that subordinates’ fear of external threats strengthened the positive relationship between abusive supervision and CCB.…”

“…The current study adopts a 3-wave prospective study design because appropriate time lags may help reduce common method problems [ 21 ]. In accordance with previous studies (e.g., [ 33 , 47 ]), we chose one month as the interval. If the time lag is too short, it cannot reduce the salience of the predictor variable.…”

“…In addition to well-being, abusive supervision may further relate to employees’ workplace behavior, such as decreased organizational citizenship behavior (i.e., OCB, [ 33 ]), defined as “individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization” [ 34 ]. OCB includes extra-role behaviors such as interpersonal helping behaviors that are not included in job descriptions [ 35 ].…”

Rethinking abusive supervision: antecedents and reparative mechanisms of abusive supervision, including supervisor frustration, coworker support, guilt, and supervisor OCB in a mediated-moderation model

“…This might intervene between supervisor frustration and abusive supervision. In this study, we reposition coworker support from the perspective of supervisors, which is missed by contemporary researchers (Zhang et al, 2022).…”